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Hey gang. I took my truck to the Ohio Veterans' Memorial Park in Clinton, Ohio this past Saturday for their 1st Annual Veterans Family Days. I figured the place would be full of OD but not so. I was the only MV to show! They ushered me to a spot right in front of the wall. Boy was I honored. They a great ceremony concluding with a missing man formation courtesy of 4 T6's. On the way home a thunderstorm hit. Boy I need to wire up those electric wipers...

Now on the way down Saturday I developed an engine miss. She ran like I was missing a few cylinders at mid range RPM and then would smooth out at top end. Definetly an ignition miss. Sunday I took out my distributor to look at the points. Low and behold they were burned and covered with an oily film. I ran this paper through the points, you can see the film: Now my first thought was the coil leaking. Not so. I found the firewall side vent line fitting to be full of an oily residue. Odd? Is this being pulled from the air cleaner? Or did I not clean the line well after the parts washer when I first assembled the engine? The breaker points were the only thing really covered with the film. I cleaned everthing up and put in my spare points. I re-installed the distributor and installed new vent lines. I hit the starter button and she fired right up. I steped out of the cab and smelled some fuel. Boy she is running rich I thought? Then I glanced down to see gas spewing from the engine compartment! I shut her down. Upon inspection I found this: I thought maybe the line had become gummy from the fuel but it does not appear to be so. It looks more like a fatigue failure from too tight of a crimp?
I did not smell fuel when I parked the truck at the Memorial Saturday. This must have let go on the way home? I am amazed I made it home Saturday. What a weekend...

That could've turned out a lot worse. I guess the OD crowd had something else to do?

Over servicing the oil bath filter will result in a mist of oil heading downstream. Or as you surmised it may have been residual stuff in your tubing. Did you install a new condenser as well. The burning point contacts is usually indicative of a weak or failing condenser.

Cuz,
Yes I installed a whole kit...cap, rotor, points, condenser.

The installation of electronic ignition eliminates points and condensor issues. Things like this happening when making on call runs with fire service trucks I talked about a while back were totally eliminated by changing to electronic. We couldn't pay them to run a points system again. Electronic is far less problematic in various ways. I'm sure I'll get told once again it isn't so, but proven facts stand as far as I'm concerned.

I'm sure I'll get told once again it isn't so,

No I won't Charles. As I have already posted before I have used them on several vehicles and agree they improve maintainability and, for the guy who lets his points get really bad before servicing them, well he might even see a performance gain!

It would be nice if folks would just let us old timers who like our points keep them and concentrate the sales pitch on the guys who either never ran points, don't understand the need for periodic inspections of the points or just don't like them.

IF I Never have to gap and set dwell again I won't miss it . I added the pointless ign to my truck a few months ago and love it. I like the fire truck approach I want it to go now and stay going. For my own comparison I just gave my brother's 72 BLazer a tune up. I can't tell you how much fun it was to lay on a couple of pillows on top of the engine, like some kind of a human balance beam so I could work on the distributor. At least Chevy has a door on the cap so you can set the dwell when the engine is running. I am working on my brother to put in a Pertronix or similar set up.
Eliminating the maintenance of points is worth it. And it takes all of an hour to convert and it is not no major mod.

Like I just said try to aim the sales pitch at those that are interested. It is also nice not to knock the guys who prefer the original points by constantly telling them they are wrong or dumb. They only wish to exercise their freedom of choice. It is like the overbearing religious promoters that bang on your door and won't walk away until you are converted! It gets old real quick.

No need for me to advertise modules here Wes. All the regulars here know they are available from us and other sources also. These are without a doubt the largest selling single item we have marketed for M Series vehicles. They speak for themselves I guess, folks really do like them.

And some folks don't care to buy them. I like to compare our feelings about points to those feelings of using our M as daily drivers. Yes they are slow, yes they are old (and there are better and newer trucks) and yes they are noisy but they are ours and it's our choice. I don't feel we are superior in any way to those that prefer the newer stuff and I would hope those who prefer the newer stuff feel the same way.

Point - counterpoint....

If the truck runs and drives, and puts a smile between your ears, thats good enough.

Slow ,old and noisy, when they start getting rid of that, some of us are doomed!

And ,I like setting my points,getting just the right feel on the feeler gauge as you close the gap,then checking the dwell and it's right on. Kinda like takin a good poop, you feel realy good when your done.

DJ wrote:And ,I like setting my points,getting just the right feel on the feeler gauge as you close the gap,then checking the dwell and it's right on. Kinda like takin a good poop, you feel realy good when your done.

Wow...a whole new level of description has been reached here fella's....

Don't forget the paper work?